Labor will lift the rebate freeze from 2017, while under the Coalition, GPs will be paid the same amount for delivering health services in 2020 as they were in 2014. So what does this mean for patients?

About a million Australians now have diabetes.
Image Point Fr/ShutterstockMarch 6, 2016

The primary care reform debate of the last 15 months got off on the wrong foot. It was framed in terms of cutting government spending, with an overlay that consumers needed to bear the brunt of system…

The AMA described the proposed reimbursement changes for level B consultations as “an assault on general practice”.
AAP Image/Lukas CochJanuary 20, 2015

The Australian Medical Association (AMA) has emerged from the recent brouhaha over the Abbott government’s proposed Medicare reforms as both a winner in the protection of doctors’ incomes and an apparent…

A blueprint for Medicare reform must include cost control, but also support quality and equity.
Dave Hunt/AAPJanuary 20, 2015

The Abbott government is struggling with its Medicare co-payment reform, scrapping the latest version for a period of consultation, starting this week. The government claims it wants to make Medicare sustainable…

Across 38 years in tobacco control, I have been asked countless times in media interviews if I ever smoked. It’s often an early question. I always unhesitatingly explain that I did: I stopped in my mid…

The Coalition government’s proposed changes to Medicare have never managed to garner public favour.
AAP/Peter BoyleJanuary 15, 2015

The government has backed down from its plan to cut Medicare rebates to doctors, which was to start on Monday, January 19, after several days of public pressure. For those not au fait with the world of…

Most people overestimate the benefits and underestimate the harms of medical intervention.
Barbara M./FlickrDecember 22, 2014

“It might do me some good and it won’t hurt to give it a go.” How often have you heard a phrase like this? Most people have naïve optimism about medical care. That’s the finding of a systematic review…